Visible Connections
by katilara
Summary: KyouyaxKaoru. Even on his own he could conquer the world, it didn’t have to be the two of them.


For **zodiacstargazer**, who stumped me in the 'stump the writer meme'. She prompted Kyouya/Kaoru and a song. All I've listened to lately is Sparta and UVERworld, and I couldn't quite reconcile the Sparta with Ouran this evening, so this comes loosely from a translation I found of Tobira by UVERworld. I've never written this pairing before, so I really hope it works. And you know dear, I think I may set the Sirius/Tamaki on the backburner, in case I ever need some crack distraction some day. :p

* * *

**Negative**

Hikaru had chosen Haruhi, and Kaoru was fine with that. He had known that eventually they would have to lead separate lives, but he hadn't ever bothered to envision what that might mean. He had never envisioned Saturday nights alone in their bed or being driven home on his own after club activities. He sulked for a week, and then he decided it was time for a hobby.

Photography was a natural move for him. He had always enjoyed manipulating things, had always been an observer, so he knew the way to best capture each person he saw through the lens of his camera. Even his candid shots seemed to show him some of the truth that normal interaction lacked. It also seemed that the camera wouldn't let him down or bore him. There were endless combinations of things to photograph, and endless stolen moments with which he could intimate himself.

Time without Hikaru had left another opening as well. He now had a reason to contemplate the other people he spent time with as more than playthings. Each new person was a possible new connection. Hikaru had moved his devotion from one person to another; Kaoru would open his world up to as many people as possible.

In one of the guest bathrooms, which had been turned into a makeshift darkroom, he pulled out a print of Kyouya and Tamaki. It was one of those stolen pictures that the objects hadn't known about, and it made him feel like part of the moment. He looked at the two new possible connections and felt closer to them. He didn't dwell on why his eyes drifted back to Kyouya every time he forced them to move on.

**Youth**

Ootori Kyouya was sixteen. He was old enough to buy his father's company and return it to him with business like grace. He was old enough to surpass his brothers in the race he'd been running since birth. And he was too old to be standing on the field at Ouran and disdainfully pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose while the rest of the Host Club kicked cans with a son of the yakuza. He made a note in his notebook that yakuza connections would be helpful, if not morally ambiguous. The dirty and dented can landed at his feet and he looked at it, somewhat lost.

"Okasan!" Kyouya looked up slowly. Kaoru was waving his arm and jumping up and down. He had noted a drastic increase in interest in general club activities out of Kaoru since Hikaru had entered the game for Haruhi's affections. He valued this and what it meant for the club, but it also unsettled him to hear one Hitachiin voice on its own.

For no reason that Kyouya could fathom, he kicked the can to Kaoru. The other boy's face lit up as he turned and dribbled it a bit before kicking it off to Mori. Kyouya turned his back to the game and underlined the note about the yakuuza before he scribbled another note under it.

_Sixteen is too old for unreciprocated crushes with no merit._

**Dreaming**

Kaoru had brought the digital camera to the Host Club that day on Renge's request. She had seen some of his prints, though he still didn't know how she had seen pictures that he was sure hadn't left the guest bathroom. She had said that it would be too hard converting images from print to a sellable format, but could he just take some that she could easily transfer? He still wasn't sure why he was doing it. Taking pictures of the Host Club made him feel kind of like a spy though, which excited him for fifteen minutes at least.

He was framing a shot of Tamaki, Honey, and Kyouya and too busy trying to get the lighting right and fiddling with the setting to notice when Kyouya looked dead into the camera. He lost the shot when Tamaki ran out of it after Haruhi, but that was when he looked through the screen on the back right into the black eyes that studied him from across the room. He frowned and zoomed in, framing Kyouya's face. Impulsively, he hit the button.

The lighting was off, and the glare on Kyouya's lenses made one of his eyes impossible to read, but Kaoru studied it anyway, trying to find out what so fascinated him about the boy that no other picture had been able to show him. A shadow fell over him and he looked up.

"You have club duties to be attending to Kaoru. Your customers did not come here to watch you fiddle with a camera."

Kaoru smirked to hide his blush and quickly hit the power button so that the captured image was wiped from the screen, hopefully before Kyouya had seen it. "Are you positive that's not exactly what they came to see?" He arched his eyebrow in challenge.

Kyouya nodded and made a note on his clipboard. "We can probably use that idea actually. I'll have to speak to Renge."

"I don't know why that otaku has such a say in the happenings of this club," Kaoru said, carefully measuring the amount of disdain in his voice. "You ran it fine without her didn't you? And I bet you could better decide which pictures to use anyway."

Kyouya was silent as he adjusted his glasses and Kaoru knew he was weighing the consequences of taking that task out of Renge's hands. "Perhaps I could."

"Fine, I don't care. I don't have the cable here though; we'll have to check them at my house."

Kyouya stared at him for a moment and Kaoru could feel pressure rise in his stomach. He was about to laugh it off when Kyouya gave him another slow nod. They looked at each other for a moment, contemplation on both their faces. Kyouya was the first to break away at the sound of shattering table wear. Kaoru hazarded a glance over his shoulder as he stalked away. The note read:

_May be slight reciprocation, yet still highly impractical. _

_Read up on developing processes._

**Tremor**

They had started out looking at the pictures uploaded on Hikaru's computer and deciding which ones could be best used for publication, but then talk had turned to the hobby in general and Kyouya had asked to see the dark room. And then there they were, standing in the semi dark, inspecting chemicals and equipment. As the minutes passed, Kaoru slowly became more nervous and Kyouya slowly became more disturbed by the feeling in his gut.

"What does this one do?" Kyouya asked, taking a step back, but still not far enough away from Kaoru in the small room for it to be a platonic distance.

"It projects the image onto the paper," Kaoru said. He turned to flip one of the switches and instead found his nose inches from Kyouya's. They stood there, looking at one another, faces close enough that Kyouya could make out some of Kaoru's freckles and Kaoru could see the way Kyouya's eyes met more tightly at the corners than his own.

Kaoru could feel Kyouya's breath as it ghosted across his chin, and down into the open triangle of his shirt where it spread across his chest. He thought about how he should step back, how he should feel uncomfortable, but he didn't.

Kyouya analyzed the data of Kaoru from the last couple of weeks in his head and tried to determine whether or not this new development he felt in his gut would be detrimental to the club.

Neither of them found that they particularly cared for anything outside of the dark room at that moment.

Kyouya leaned forward slightly.

"Kyo-" Kaoru said, trying to find the courage to lean forward as well. But it didn't matter because Kyouya came the whole way and their lips were together and Kyouya was warm and more pliable than Kaoru would ever have imagined him to be, and not at all made of ticker paper like Hikaru had joked.

**Again**

Kyouya didn't want to stop kissing Kaoru, because it was much different than anyone else he had ever kissed and he wanted to collect the data and figure out exactly why. But Kaoru pulled away and it was so quiet and so dim that he couldn't collect any data at all. Instead he pushed his glasses back up his nose and let Kaoru turn around and leave. He would study later exactly how that made him feel.

Kaoru led Kyouya back to his room and sat down in the computer chair and pretended to be looking for some new photographs. Kyouya closed the door softly after him and sat at the foot of the twins' bed and looked at the pictures from a safe distance.

"Are you okay, Kyouya?" Kaoru turned around in his chair and studied him, which made Kyouya burn inside. He was unsettled again, because one pair of Hitachiin eyes looking at him was much more intense than two.

Kaoru stood up and walked toward him. Kyouya didn't move, not even when Kaoru removed his glasses and sat down next to him on the bed. He felt tense, spring loaded, like his whole body might snap if Kaoru touched him again. And then Kaoru did.

Instead of breaking, he melted. Kaoru tentatively touched both sides of Kyouya's face with his fingertips and Kyouya responded by kissing him again. He ran one hand up Kaoru's back and threaded the fingers of the other through his hair. Kyouya pulled Kaoru closer to him until they were flush against each other, chests rising and falling in opposite so that they pushed and pulled one another like the moon and the water. Kyouya closed his eyes focused on the tongue against his, trying not to feel completely undone.

**Meaning  
**

Kaoru could feel the connection between them, and it had nothing to do with his growing erection or the way Kyouya's tongue ran smoothly and insistently over his. He felt elated, and a little smug. Even on his own he could conquer the world, it didn't have to be the two of them.

But that was the point to, and he knew it. He wasn't alone anymore. Someone else could understand him, if given the time. Someone else had shown an interest in a side of him that even Hikaru had barely noticed over the past month.

They were against the sheets, though he didn't remember lying down. He clawed at Kyouya, pushed him back so he could straddle his hips, and then leaned forward to kiss him some more. Kaoru let his tongue run lazily over Kyouya's neck as he moved his hips back and forth, not sure of what he should be doing. Kyouya groaned, and Kaoru smiled into his shoulder. He must have done something right.

He had never done this before, had never craved someone else's heat and presence, because Hikaru had always been there. He didn't know how far to take things, he didn't know what to say. It wasn't going to be easy, but for now it was bliss. And that was a godsend really, because the camera had started to bore him, just a little.


End file.
